While much of Florida’s attention next week will remain on the Gulf of Mexico and the possibility that some oil may reach western Panhandle shores, Tallahassee may also be looking to Gov. Charlie Crist.
Crist may decide this week whether he should call a special session that would allow lawmakers to consider an amendment to enshrine a drilling ban in the state constitution.
While several high profile Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink, have pressed Crist to do it, opponents point out there’s really no need to do it now.
Drilling in Florida waters – which is what the amendment being floated would ban – is already banned by a moratorium. Not only would that moratorium be impossible to lift without legislative action, it’s highly unlikely to be lifted anytime soon, what with pictures of oil and tar covered birds already taking up a good part of the nightly news.
Opponents of a special session say that if a constitutional ban on drilling is a good idea, it could wait until 2012 because there isn’t likely to be the political will to lift the moratorium before then anyway.
Backers of the idea – which includes many Democrats in the Legislature – say that to wait until 2012 risks the possibility that legislators could that spring, which would be two years after the spill, push forward for new drilling because it would be the last session as Senate president for Mike Haridopolos and the last as House speaker for Dean Cannon, both who have favored drilling in the past.
In Washington, Congress grills the companies that put the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf and that were responsible for the various parts of the rigs. Executives will be hauled before a Senate panel on Tuesday and head to the House on Wednesday.
Source: The News Service of Florida
